Hello, My Old Heart
by IrisWrites
Summary: It's been a long time since Lovino has been able to love someone and he's not sure f he could bring himself to start loving someone in that way again. "Hello, my old heart, how have you been? How is it, being locked away? Don't you worry. In there you're safe, and it's true you'll never beat, but you'll never break." flower shop!au


A new story au waaahoooo. I should really update my other stories. But I'm testing this one out to see how it goes. There's a lot of flower language in it so I hope you guys watch out for their meaning! I hope you guys enjoy it! If you guys have any thoughts/advice on it, feel free to leave a review!

**Notes:** words in italic means they're speaking Italian.

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Lovino knew the man was going to be a pain in the ass the moment he walked into their shop and nearly knocked down a row of potted Gardenias. For god sake they were right in front of him! You would have to be blind to bump into them. He waited for the man to put the pots back in their places before asking, "can I help you?"

The other looked up from the flowers, finally noticing that someone was there and gave him a sheepish look, "Sorry about that, I didn't see them there. I'll pay for any damage!" He spoke English, very accented at that, but Lovino was right in his hunch that he wasn't from around here; or even the country really. Probably some lost tourist in town asking for directions.

Letting out a quiet sigh, Lovino was very tempted to do as the man offered. Honestly he had already started to dislike him. Knowing himself though, he'll probably feel guilty about it later.

"It's fine. Just stop touching them, I'll take care of it," he replied. If first impressions mean anything, he didn't want the other to continue touching the flowers. Walking over to where the man was standing, he lined the pots up properly and double checked to see if anything did happen to them but they seem to still be in good condition.

Once he was done he looked up to find the man watching him, as if transfixed by what he was doing. Which Lovino found to be odd and only deepened his opinion that most tourists were noisy oddballs.

"Well? Is there something I can help you with?"

"Oh! Uh, I was wondering if you had any roses, about a dozen maybe. A friend told me your shop would have a wide variety and they would be very fresh too! So I came here but I didn't thi-"

Lovino cut him off since he was starting to ramble, "which color do you want them?"

The other didn't seem to mind being cut off, nor noticed that Lovino's voice was starting to sound irritated with him.

"Colors? Hm, Françoise said she wanted six in red and the other six to be light pink. Oh, I almost forgot, she wanted some Baby's Breath too if you have any," the man answered, looking rather happy with himself that he managed to remember everything. Françoise, he knew someone with that name, but maybe they meant someone else. Then again, there's not many people around here with that name.

Lovino nodded, motioning the customer to follow him to the counter. Usually he was supposed to make small talk with the customers–ask them what the occasion was, if they were having a good day, how their family was doing, so on–but Lovino wasn't the talkative type. It was mainly his younger brother's job to make small talk and hell was he good at it. Said brother was now on his lunch break so only he was left to service customers.

The Italian made sure to keep an eye on the man as he collected the needed flowers to wrap up. He was easily paranoid, so he didn't want the guy to start wandering around the shop. God knows what else he might knock over next.

"This really is a beautiful shop you have here. There's so many flowers I've never seen in my life. Do you grow them yourselves?" Lovino watched from the corner of his eyes as the other swayed back and forth in his spot, looking around the shop with curiosity. He didn't get the chance to answer him.

"My name's Antonio by the way. I just thought I should tell you." Antonio let out a small laugh and played with his fingers, "I know it sounds silly but it's always nice to know someone's name when you meet them. Can I ask what your name is?"

He rolled his eyes, turned around, and pointed to the little golden nametag on his shirt.

"Lovino. Is this all you needed?" he asked, indicating to all the wrapped flowers in his arms.

"Lovino huh? Lovino. Lovino." Antonio rolled the Italian's name around in his mouth, playing with the sound and liking how it came out.

"Yes, Lovino. It's not that fucking interesting. Is this all you needed?" His irritation was starting to come through. He went to the counter and punched in the numbers, not very eager to continue their conversation.

"Oh! Yes, how much will that be?"

"20 Euros."

The Spaniard quickly fished out his wallet and paid him. Carefully taking the flowers from the counter, Antonio put away his wallet and was about to leave when he remembered something.

"Sorry if it's a bother but you never asked my question about the flowers. Unless you don't want to answer that's fine, of course."

Lovino sighed and mumbled, _"for fuck sake,_" under his breath before answering, "we own a small flower farm 15 minutes from the shop. That's where they come from. Now if there's nothing else you need, have a good day."

Maybe Antonio heard the little subtext under the Italian's words or maybe he didn't, so he thanked him for the flowers and left. But before the door closed behind him, he flashed him a bright smile and said, "your name, it's very handsome. You have a fantastic day too!"

No, he wasn't blushing, god no, he was just surprised by the compliment. People don't compliment him on stuff like that often, especially not people like Antonio whom he wasn't very friendly with.

Oh well, it didn't mean anything, he probably just said it so that Lovino would forget about the Gardenia incident. To hell will Lovino forget about that. He was a little too protective of their flowers to forget.

It was 1pm when Feliciano finally came back from his lunch break so Lovino could have his. It took him a whole goddamn hour to get through lunch. The idiot probably tried to take a nap after he ate, wouldn't be anything surprising to his brother.

Putting on his green apron, he asked, _"did anyone come in while I was gone?"_

_"Yeah, some friend of that picky flower lady, I think. The bastard was a fucking handful! He even knocked over some pots when he came in."_

_"You think anyone who talks too much when they come in is a handful, Lovino. Did he talked a lot? Did you try to talk to him?"_

_"Yeah, wouldn't shut up until he leave. I answered his pesky questions, that counts,"_ he replied, taking off his red apron and hanging it up on the hook next to the counter.

_"Big brother! You know you need to be nicer to the customers, they might run away if you act like that."_

_"You mean they need to toughen up instead. Besides, that's your job Feli, not mine."_

His brother gave him a little huff but waved him off to lunch anyways. Feliciano knew more than anyone else how stubborn Lovino could be, but it was always worth a try to get him to smile more.

As Lovino opens the door to leave, Feliciano shouted to him, "Miss Elizaveta has a new lunch menu today, she said she wants you to come over and try it out. It was very good in my opinion."

_"Yeah, yeah, she told me about it yesterday. I was heading there anyways."_

_"Enjoy your lunch!"_

Lovino nodded, closed the door behind him, and headed for the Cafe 2 blocks down the street.

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It's not edited so sorry for any errors!

Also François is fem!france and the bouquet she's making looks a little something like this:

pioneerheritageshoppe com/images/Flower%20Arrangements/Bouquet%20Arrange ments/redrosebouquet-20-04162-lg jpg

hint hint it's for her anniversary with someone. Can you guys guess who?

light pink rose = Desire, passion, joy of life, youth, energy

red rose = True love

baby's breath = Innocence, pure of heart

Lavanda rosa is Italian for Lavender Rose


End file.
